Tilt the floor.

This ‘laws list quote’ is from the computer system technical head at Brooklyn Union Gas some years ago. I believe the speaker was Tom White. (I am bad with name memory.)

He was explaining how someone like him (not wearing the management uniform of the times) managed a diverse, intelligent, opinionated, and creative staff in a complex systems development environment. He said,

Tilt the floor.
Make it easy for people to go in the direction you want them to.

Today’s person of interest is, as has been the case before, our Toronto (Canada) mayor, John Tory.

Decisive Management Inaction. We cynics, on a difficult systems development project (again, some years ago) used this phrase as a test. We’d ask the hearer to give us a word count. Most people heard, “Decisive Management in Action.” However, we were observing, daily, decisive management inaction.

Instead of simply admitting that the Scarborough subway is a mistake, instead of admitting that the light rail funding is probably there, Mr. Tory would have us wait for more studies, trust his intuition about transit, and let him waffle on the Yonge subway extension to York.

York region wants the subway to end in their neighbourhood. Good idea, if you get on and off in York region. At least you’ll get a seat in the morning.
However, once you’re part way south, the addition of your York Region posterior, seated in the crowded train, will turn an abominable transit ride into one of hellish crush proportions.

Cooler heads tell us that the York Region extension should not happen before the DownTown Relief Line. The latter is scheduled far into the future.
Meanwhile, York Region is advertizing their brains out as to how badly they want (deserve?) a subway connection. Now.

Sounds just like Scarborough, doesn’t it?

Our mayor could make this a lot more efficient, by getting everyone (Metrolinx? TTC? Council?) together and setting out a transit plan that will actually happen. It might include points like these:

• Scarborough gets a light rail line now, with a larger network later
• Downtown gets relief, in some justified manner, for the Yonge and Bloor subway lines in rush hour
• York Region understands that there will NOT be any extension of the subway northward until the above have occurred.

This would be more efficient in a lot of ways, including:

• Scarborough could stop spending political capital on lobbying and work on exploiting the LRT plans, immediate and future
• York Region could stop spending money on lobbying and advertising, and figure out how to manage in the interim – maybe bus lines into several downtown points, to spread the load
• John Tory could spend less time talking (about studies, SmartTrack, budget possibilities) and actually get something moving.

Which brings this post full circle, in a way.

What do we want to avoid?

Decisive Management Inaction.

What should we do about it?

Tilt the floor.

• Make it easier for York Region to swallow their needs with doable solutions now.
• Make it acceptable for Scarborough to get the better LRT solution they actually do deserve.
• Make it necessary for our Mayor, TTC masters, Metrolinx masters, and city council, to do something useful.

Call your city councillor.
Call your mayor.
Call Kathleen Wynne, your provincial premier.

Call. EMail. Say it on your social media.

Tilt the floor. Otherwise, you’re guilty of decisive management inaction.